Firesafe board storage container

Here’s some assorted pics:

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Did the power connector on the Unity desolder itself?

Looks like heat shrink tubing is the most fire safe component we use.

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you are correct.

they are not going to keep the batteries from all going.

my hope is that they might help with all the other crap that catches on fire…

my concern is they would pop too soon and the batteries would catch the other stuff on fire again.

I really don;t think there is much that can stop one of these fires in real life once they get going…

Looks like it. Hm, that is a bit strange. A short on the connector or in the Unity?

No lithium fires are scary stubborn bastards…there’s no real good way to extinguish them except dissipate the heat. The only realistic way to dissipate that much energy is to chuck them into a swimming pool or the ocean so the water gets warm but nothing gets damaged (except your board which will be almost unsalvageable after getting boiled)

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Possible but they are protected with heat shrink so unlikely

these are for lithium fires, but a thousand bucks…
EDIT
THIS CLASS D EXTINGUISHER IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR LITHIUM ION BATTERIES
THIS IS NOT RELEVANT

Actually statistically cheaper to replace the board

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image

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Damn that’s crazy!
So glad it happened outside and you are ok @janpom
It always scares me to see pictures of batteries in flames…
I need to admit I’m a bit anxious about batteries at home.
I try to minimize a fire hazard by splitting my packs in smaller packs and store them with distance. One of the good things on top mount battery packs, they are easy to take off and store in a box.
I have one of the hobbyking safe boxes.
They are nice but only meant for batteries below 6s 10Ah.
I have as well a bigger aluminum box which is covered inside with dry wall and has some separations out of dry wall.
Besides this I use some ammo boxes.
With it I hope to contain flames to a minimum and stop a potential fire to spread to other packs.
No one of the boxes are strong closed so that pressure can be released.

Maybe that all is a bit overkill, but I had one board on fire in our flat and I do not wish anybody to go through this experience.
Here some pictures of my small battery storage room

And sorry, but one reminder at this point as well to all of us who are playing with batteries at home, get your shit together and be prepared for the worst. It doesn’t need to be your fault that a pack goes up in flames, but it’s your responsibility to keep the people living around you save!
It really scares me how big our batteries became in the last years. I don’t want to imagine what a 12s15p pack in flames in a high rise could cause.

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thanks for the tough love, lol :heart:

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Poor trucks, I thought I gave them a good home :sob: :sob:

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If you want i have a board you could have for cheap to get you riding again :
12s4p 30Q with 100A discharge bms
2x6374 220kv motors
Focbox Unity
3d servisas nano drive
tb218 Hangers
VX1 remote
Abec11 107mm (no bergmeister like picture)

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That’s a really nice storage solution. Thanks for sharing! :+1:

I found this aluminum box, which is just about perfect size for a board, though a bit pricey:

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Damn man, that’s bad, hope you get riding again quickly

What really gets me on those fires, is that when you see the tests on the datasheets, there is never a fire, reverse charging at 20 V? no problem, just smoke, dead short? also smoke

But on use the combust, could it be that the cells themselves can survive abuse, but since the materials we use around combust with the heat? not the cells?

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I am grateful everyone is OK!
Thank you for sharing your crazy experience
:pray:


Immediately goes and finds better storage for his cells

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Really sorry to see this! I’m glad you’re okay. The battery doesn’t look bad from the photos. Please keep brainstorming for the cause.

I keep thinking, if there’s a board fire indoors, the smoke will be as bad as the heat. Do you think containing the flames is still useful?

Ahhh ok that would have been to easy of a catch anyway. Was it a charge only BMS build?

It seem’s that the pack as a whole must of shorted and not just a single P group. 30Q’s individually handle shorts quite well (they don’t blow up). :frowning:

Out of all the esk8 fires this one scares me the most as it happened to an experienced builder and there doesn’t seem to be any glaring flaws.

I’d recommend anyone to take pictures of pretty much every detail they can on their board so if this ever does happen to anyone else we can hopefully learn from it and improve our construction techniques as a community.

This is one hell of a way to advertise your DaveGa :rofl:

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ohhh nooo. That blows and lucky it’s only most of the board and nothing more substantial.

Most of the ones we have seen burn down on this forum and the old forum happened while outside moving around. So it makes me think abrasion of some insulation is the cause. Shorting one or more cells so they heat up and go into thermal run away. After this you just have to wait for it to burn out.

Abrasion proof insulation is really REALLY EXTREMELY important. Also I think we should be fusing all wires from the pack, the balance leads and the main power and any ancillary wire also. So that if they do short they just pop a fuse.

Also maybe a firewall between the electronics and the battery is a good idea? So when it does burn down at least your electronics can be reused on the next build.

This pack even looks pretty well constructed to forum standards. Though I personally wouldn’t trust hot glue to hold anything long term. Silicon is way more trustworthy and does not change consistency with temperature. You can already see some glue delaminating in this pic.

The circled area above looks well insulated, but its a possible spot for a short.

For fire containment on the go I have considered carrying one of those fiberglass fire blankets. But never got to ordering one.

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